The
first manned dive to the Titanic in 14 years found a wreck in 'shocking' decay.
The photos are spooky.
For
the first time in 14 years, divers traveled to the Titanic's final resting
place, where they found the storied ship is being devoured by metal-eating
bacteria and battered by corrosion and deep sea currents.
A team
of explorers made five dives to the wreck, which lies in two pieces at the
bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in near-freezing water 370 miles south of
Newfoundland, Canada, according Atlantic Productions, which is producing a
documentary about the expedition. They found the hull starting to collapse and
the officers' quarters, where the captain had his rooms, beginning to
deteriorate.
"The
most shocking area of deterioration was the starboard side of the officers'
quarters, where the captain’s quarters were," Titanic historian Parks
Stephenson said. "Captain’s bath tub is a favourite image among the
Titanic enthusiasts, and that’s now gone. That whole deck hole on that side is
collapsing taking with it the state rooms, and the deterioration is going to
continue advancing.”
The
Titanic collided with an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. The ship went
under two hours and 40 minutes later; more than 1,500 people died.
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The
team laid a wreath at the site and held a short ceremony in honor of those who
lost their lives on the ship's maiden voyage.
The
expedition was intended to capture footage and computer imagery to assess the
Titanic's current condition, and "project its future," along with
providing high quality visuals and 3D models of the 107-year-old wreckage. The
first 4K visual images will allow the wreck to be seen in augmented and virtual
reality.
“The
future of the wreck is going to continue to deteriorate over time, it’s a
natural process," expedition scientist Lori Johnson said. "These are
natural types of bacteria, so the reason that the deterioration process ends up
being quite a bit faster, is a group of bacteria, a community working
symbiotically to eat, if you will, the iron and the sulphur.”
The
bacteria, named Halomonas titanicae after the ship, was first collected in 1991
on iciclelike formations of rust but were not identified until 2010, the BBC
reported. The microorganisms can survive at intense pressures in pitch-black
water.
National
Geographic will produce a documentary with the Titanic footage taken in early
August.
Texas
equity-firm owner, renowned explorer and founder of Caladan Oceanic, Victor
Vescovo, owns a submersible, named the Limiting Factor, and has piloted it on
both the Five Deeps Expedition and during the Titanic missions.
“It’s
a big wreck; I wasn’t quite prepared for how large it was," Vescovo said
in a statement. "It was extraordinary to see it all, and the most amazing
moment came when I was going along the side of the Titanic and the bright
lights of the submersible reflected off a portal and came right back, it was
like the ship was winking at me. It was amazing."
While
photos of the ship may look ghostly, oceanographer David Gallo said the
deterioration doesn't look much different than when he co-lead a remotely
operated expedition to the Titanic in 2010. Gallo stressed that it's too soon
to tell how long the ship will take to decay and more research needs to be
done.
"I
don’t see what was seen as being 'shocking,'" Gallo said. "It's been
over 100 years and the ship shows wear, but it certainly looks like it’s going
to last another 100 years,"
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